NC Bound

[ejr1953]

Unless something unforeseen happens, we will be settling on the sale of our house in Mount Airy mid-May, with a one-month rent back, so we can move our stuff down to a storage place in Asheville, near our new home in the Biltmore Lake community, as our new home won't be completed until February or March, we'll be living with our daughter and granddaughter in Asheville.

We packed up my audio system several weeks ago, to "de-clutter" and "stage" our house for the real estate listing.  When down in Asheville, I'll be enjoying my son-in-law's modest rig, and all vinyl setup.

The house we are building will have a "bonus room" above the garage, isolated from the rest of the house, for my "man cave" and audio room.

Asheville is a very fun town to visit, great music scene, lots of great microbreweries and restaurants, very nice people.  If you come to visit, please look us up.

While living with our daughter we'll be at:

62 Grandview Road
Asheville, NC 28806

Our new address will be:

53 Ivestor Gap Road
Biltmore Lake, NC 28715

My cell is: 301-639-5443

I have thoroughly enjoyed the people I've met at the DC Hi-Fi Group!  Thank you everyone for all the great times together!

[speakertom]

I feel your packing pain. I have been packing for about 2 months now. Our move has been postponed because PA has halted all construction. Our present house goes on the market in two weeks which means we may have to put our things in storage. UGH! When the stager looked at our house he though almost everything looked great until he saw the egg speakers. I told him moving them was a non-starter because of their size and weight. So he will be bringing over some large plants to put near them and "soften" the look. I guess that says something about most non-audiophile's views.

[ejr1953]

Speaker Tom,

I "feel your pain".  In my case, we got rid of lots of stuff and I rented a local 10' x 10' climate controlled storage unit, with my son's help, boxed up my system components; they will rest either in the local storage unit, or the one we'll be moving our stuff to down in Asheville, until our new house is ready (February or March).

I must say, when the house is "staged", it does show well.

Our agent said that the third weekend in March he had 25 showings, only 3 the last weekend in March, when our listing went up.  We were fortunate to get two verbal contract offers, one without any contingencies, a commitment letter for a VA mortgage.

We are past all the inspections, I do have a fix to make to the septic system, but I think we are on track for a May 15th settlement (fingers crossed).

Good luck with the sale of your home!

[ejr1953]

Hey Speaker Tom,

Have they started up construction in PA?  It never stopped at our new neighborhood.  We're down in Asheville for a bit, they leveled our lot, poured the footers, laid the foundation walls, prepped the crawl space and it looks like they are getting ready to pour the slab in the garage.

The people contracting to buy our house in Maryland called for all sorts of inspections.  Unbeknownst to us, part of our septic system is nearing end-of-life.  I'm certainly willing to fix that, but the permitting processes have slowed to a crawl.  So, the buyers are investigating getting their lock extended, or possibly getting approved for a new mortgage.  My agent called yesterday and said, "worst case scenario" they can't get the same interest rate and pass on buying our house, he's seeing a significant uptick in activity lately.  I'm not terribly concerned, as our new house won't be ready until February or March.

I hope all's going well with your home construction.

[speakertom]

The state has allowed some construction such as getting the siding on so the house would be weatherproof. Original occupancy date was supposed to be in June but hopefully it will will now be in August. Who knows at this point. Our current house came on the market Thursday and we have had some people through. Houses in this area are still selling and there is a shortage of inventory which should help. Hope your permitting process does not kill the sale. Fortunately, in PA the permitting process is much easier and faster than here.

[ejr1953]

Speaker Tom,

I suspect you won't have trouble selling, even in this market, as all I hear is how little "inventory" there is in the DC/Baltimore area.

Our settlement is scheduled for Friday, May 22nd.  We have a repair to do to our septic system, because the county is slow to do permitting for that, it might be done after settlement, so I gave the septic contractor a $20k "deposit" to more than cover the highest cost for the repairs.  If for some reason the settlement falls through, I will get the repairs done and relist, not worried about selling, even in this market.  We have a one-month rent back; my friend at work's wife has been in real estate for decades and says that it's as common that a deal falls through as it is that it gets to the "finish line".  I didn't want to have the house emptied until we've settled.

Good luck with the sale!

BTW, best way to reach me is: [e-mail] and 301-639-5443.